


After Long Wanderings (I Am Home)

by KeeperofSeeds



Category: Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Video Game), TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works & Related Fandoms
Genre: Blanket Permission, During Canon, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family, Ficlet, Gen, Healing, Mother-Daughter Relationship, POV Female Character, Past Torture, Podfic Welcome, Quadruple Drabble, Women In Power
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-06
Updated: 2017-12-06
Packaged: 2019-02-08 09:11:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12861381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KeeperofSeeds/pseuds/KeeperofSeeds
Summary: Lithariel finds it hard to believe that her Mother is back to normal.Such good things did not happen within the lands of Mordor.She couldn't help but watch, waiting for the moment this happiness would be ripped away.





	After Long Wanderings (I Am Home)

The change in her mother is nothing short of astonishing. Lithariel can't stop her eyes from wandering over the familiar lines of her face, her steady hands, the almost forgotten upward tilt of her lips in a small smile.

"I am fine," the Queen calls across the room, and Lithariel gives up her pretense of reading the maps spread out before her.

"I still find it hard to believe," she says, and after a pause, admits quietly, "I had begun to forget what your smile looked like."

There was not much cause to smile in Nurnen these days, but her Mother had found joy in small things. Breathing in the scent of freshly picked herbs, watching the light glint off the waves, listening to Litharel speak about the day's mishaps on the training ground.  
  
After the journey those smiles had faded. Her mother's attention had sunk inward. Her eyes seeking answers down paths only she could follow. While Lithariel was left alone to fight, and to interpret increasingly disturbing visions.  
  
Lithariel had watched her sink and waste away, and despaired. To have her back now, fatigued, but once more herself...was almost too much. Such good things did not happen within the lands of Mordor.

She couldn't help but watch, waiting for the moment this happiness would be ripped away.

Lined hands reach around and take hold of hers, pulling her from the map table where she'd bowed her head.

"Oh, my daughter," the queen sighs, and lifts a hand to press it against her cheek. "After long wanderings in the dark, I am _home_. No longer will you be forced to stand alone against the rising Darkness."

Lithariel's lip trembled but she did not cry. She ran a hand over skin that was no longer grey and ashen, and let her fingers toy with one of the beads in her hair before she pushed the dark strands behind her Mother's ear. She meet bright eyes and marveled at the change from their former sunken and vacant look.

Queen Marwen meets her gaze and that slow smile appears, like the sun after a storm, and Lithariel basks in it. She allows herself to be pulled in closer and rejoices at the strength in the arms wrapped around her. She meets that strength with her own, and the silently thanks every being she can think of for giving her this back.

 


End file.
